U.S. RELATIONS WITH RUSSIA

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24816, 5 March 1946, Page 5

U.S. RELATIONS WITH RUSSIA

MR HARRIMAN URGES MUTUAL RESPECT “ WAR NOT INEVITABLE ” (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 8 p.m.) NEW YORK, March 3. Mr Averell Harriman, former United States Ambassador to Moscow, said in a broadcast interview that he did not consider war with Russia inevitable, but he emphasised that the future course of Russian-American relations depended principally on the United States. “There will be no war if we, as a country, remain strong physically and spiritually,” he said. “By physical strength I speak not only of maintaining an adequate military establishment — I mean that we must maintain a healthy economic life—an expanding life for all our people. “It is a fact that the Russian ideology is completely different from ours, but if we both adopt an attitude of live-and-let-live, and both respect all peoples’ right to choose their own way of life, this barrier need not be insurmountable.”

Mr Harriman acknowledged that Soviet policy had been difficult to deal with since the end of the war, but he contended that it was based on • Russia’s desire for security, which the Soviet seemed inclined to accomplish by insisting on dominating her neighbours.

“We ourselves,” he said, “only recently learned that to have really friendly neighbours a big country must first show tolerance and understanding towards small countries. It was only when Mr Roosevelt adopted the good neighbour policy that we began to develop sound friendly relations with our neighbours in the south. A nation with newly-found strength is apt to throw its weight about.”